I Need You Now
by sonicboy112
Summary: This is a story about two events in a young boy's life, about how he dealt with the loss of his first, best, and last friend.


_Picture perfect memories,_

_Scattered all around the floor_

_Reaching for phone cause, I can't fight it any more_

_And I wonder if I ever cross you mind_

_For me it happens all the time_

The sun hits the brink of twilight, illuminating the small room. Orange sunlight spills through the crevices of askew blinds. Painting the floor of striped shadow and soft flame.

All is still and silent, it was a near impossible task to tell if time had frozen or not. But the silent ticking of the pendulum gave some kind of assurance of time's eternal spinning.

A young boy lay, sprawled across the sunlit mahogany floor. His clothes in disarray and his eyes left crimson from the release of emotions that swelled inside him for the longest time. His breathing even and silent. With each breathe felt like a cold zephyr that brought peace to his ever suffering soul.

His limbs, weak from standing. From standing all his life against the dark storms

that threatened to engulf him.

Books, photos, letters, trinkets all litter the floor. Each seemed to be discarded after their prior use. Nameless books, caked with dust now lie open to have it's pages breathe air for the first time in what seemed like centuries. Photos, lacking their young, youthful luster lay scattered, bent, some ripped. Each photo held a memory, precious and irreplaceable and acted as physical manifestations for the fragile looking glass called the mind.

...

It has been over two years since young Leslie Burke passed on. Her absence left a unavoidable void within the heart in the ones whom she has touched. Especially for a young boy named Jesse Aarons.

The years crawled by and before he knew it, he was about to start high school. A new school, new teachers... new _people_...

To Jesse, the fact of someone entering his life like the way his first and last friend had would only do nothing but sever the last traces of humanity left within him.

So here he is, on the floor, alone. With nothing but slowly fading memories of the girl that now haunts his dreams.

He was afraid, afraid to trust once more. That his walls would be torn down and his heart, as it truly is, exposed for everyone to point and laugh at. And maybe, just scar it even more.

_It's a quarter after one, I'm all alone and I need you now_

_Said I wouldn't come but I lost all control and I need you now_

_And I don't know how I can do without, I just need you now_

It was times like this that he needed Leslie the most in his life. How can he move on if he's been more dead than alive? Jesse knew a part of him died along with Leslie, he just didn't know what did. His trust or himself?

He silently whispered, '' _I need you now... ''_

_Another shot of whiskey, can't stop looking at the door_

_Wishing you'd come sweeping in the way you did before_

_And I wonder if I ever cross your mind_

_For me it happens all the time_

Twilight descended upon Earth once again. Painting the empty canvas called the sky crimson, peach, marigold, with soft blurs of white scantly put here and there.

Jesse Aarons sat alone at a bar nearing closing time. Several shots littered across the table with a more dead than alive man leaning against the table.

His cheeks red from the rush of blood. His eyes hanging low, almost covering his brown irises. His throat burning with the sting of alcohol, leaving his mouth with an acrid taste of dryness and thin saliva.

At twenty- nine years, Jesse had become a well- accomplished writer and

illustrator, using his internal turmoil as his tools and motivation. His tears as paints, his anguish as pens, his lament, his brush.

But despite being successful in doing what he's always been dreaming of, there was that one day he had to bring it all back and fall apart all over again.

Today was the day his first, best, and last friend died.

Dizziness taking over, Jesse struggled to get to the door and groggily walked over to his car.

Turning his keys in the ignition, the mechanical excuse for a horse roared to life. He back out with some difficulty and began the drive back to his asylum he called home, where he would lie once again on that sun- striped floor. Like he did every year when this day came.

Over the years he learned to accept some things. For one, no matter what, no one... absolutely no one, will ever replace Leslie. Not physically or in his heart.

And that maybe, just maybe, he might never get over Leslie.

_It's a quarter after one, I'm a little drunk,_

_And I need you now_

_Said I wouldn't call but I lost all control and I need you now_

_And I don't know how I can do without, I just need you now_

The road started to curve unnaturally to Jesse and he, being exhausted as he was, started to get disoriented. He saw small flashbacks of of times he shared with _her_. He smiled the first genuine smile he had for years and let the tears cascade down his face.

He wiped his eyes only to find that he was going way too fast as the fields were flying past his car from his window. Alarmed, he immediately swerved to the side of the road. Feeling sick he let his head fall onto the steering wheel when the car was stationary and safely parked.

He let sobs escape his mouth as he mumbled incoherent things. Tears once again falling from his hollow eyes. He thought he had run out of tears years ago, he guessed when it came to Leslie, he had a bottomless supply of tears threatening to flood.

Jesse unbuckled himself and jumped out of his car and noticed he was right in front of the bus stop and dirt road where he raced Leslie to Terabithia for the first time.

He breathed in fresh air and sprinted down the dirt, leaving his car behind.

_Yes I'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all_

_It's a quarter after one, I'm all alone and I need you now_

_And I said I wouldn't call but I'm a little drunk and I need you now_

_And I don't know how I can do without, I just need you now_

_I just need you now_

He ran like he was a maniac, as if he was being chased, as if he were in the Olympics, as if he was reliving the experience to run after all these years of mourning.

He faintly heard the giggle of a young girl ring in his ears. He followed the voice blindly and jumped the fence that led to the fields.

The twilight star hit halfway through the horizon. Painting the fields a shade of red and yellow, and the clouds like cotton candy.

The running shadow soared past the field into the shadowed lands of the forest.

It wasn't long before he felt the concoction of alcohol and junk food well up in his throat, threatening to sear it's way through his esophagus.

Jesse caught sight of the river and rushed to the bank and regurgitated, thus emptying his stomach. He felt hot tears run down his cheeks again and struggled to get his breathe back.

He just shook it off and froze at the very sight of the structure before him.

An old, wooden bridge, laden with tree branches and a shield with crudely painted letters that, over time, could not be legible.

Jesse lost his breathe. After a moment of hesitation, he stepped forward, across the bridge to Terabithia. He sauntered around the forest, it retained some of it's charm and gave him an age- old feeling. Something that he hadn't felt since Leslie died.

He looked up and found the abandoned 'fortress', now a mere shadow of what it was before.

It's walls dilapidated. Its cloth, moth eaten. Its windows, violated by the tree that held it's place.

This was something that he and Leslie built... together... and he let it crumble like the brittle tree house it was. Jesse realized that he had a lot in common with the tree house. The tree house must have missed the two young children playing among it's branches and telling stories to one another. Jesse missed the child that played with him when he was one. The tree house was collapsing, Jesse was dying... slowly.

He leaned forward into the tree's base and wept, he remembered his friend's shared memories as he replayed them over and over again in his head.

_Her _smile lit up his dim world.

_Her _arms, welcomed him to where he truly belonged.

_Her _eyes, glittered whenever they were together.

Tears of the former king fell to the ground. Each filled with whatever memory they were wept for.

He whispered.... '' ..._ I need you now... ''_

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Hello!!!

This is my first Bridge to Terabithia fanfic, I hope it wasn't too depressing.

Please, leave a comment, flames, review, whatever, just tell me what you think. =)


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